We have news to share!
Liberated Archives for Black Lives at Souvenir Art Gallery, 2023
Photo credit: Mario Gallucci
November 11, 2026 – The University of Oregons’ Center for Art Research is welcoming Don’t Shoot Portland president Taishona Carpenter as an Artist-In-Residence. We are proud of Taishona’s new role as she continues to lead our organization into 2027. Please join us in celebrating this new milestone!
Artist-in-Residence: Taishona Carpenter
The UO Center for Art Research is thrilled to welcome Taishona Carpenter as Artist-in-Residence. Taishona Carpenter (Portland, OR) is an artist, organizer and community archivist with a passion for social impact in the realms of art and civil rights. Her work allows her to intersect these two passions by utilizing critical research to facilitate dialogues around art in relation to current social movements. She is the founder of Compose Yourself Magazine (composeyourselfmagazine.com), an independent online publication spotlighting music, culture and social justice.
Taishona is also currently the Board President of Don’t Shoot Portland (dontshootpdx.org),a community-based advocacy nonprofit and Director of The BLACK Gallery (theblackgallerypdx.com), an experimental arts space in downtown Portland. As a recent University of Oregon Special Collections 2026/2027 Research Fellow, her work is informing and providing access to materials through artistic methods and presentations, workshops and forums.
The Center of Injustice at Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, 2024
Photo credit: Ali Gradscher
Working primarily through large-scale multimedia installations, Taishona’s practice incorporates archival documents, historical research, and film photography. Recently she has expanded this visual language through photographic composites that connect distinct areas of research, creating layered relationships to bring historical records into our current landscape.
Her practice extends beyond the studio through curatorial work, independent publishing, memory work, and activism-based art programming. She is particularly interested in the relationship between artistic research and community knowledge, and in the capacity of art to support cultural preservation and social change.
Liberated Archives for Black Lives: Rosa Parks, 2026
